Friday, October 28, 2011

now the great wheel of darkness and low cloudswhirs and whirls in the heavens with dipping rim;against the ice-white wall of light in the westskeleton trees bow down in a stream of air.leaves, black leaves and smoke, are blown on the wind;mount upward past my window; swoop again;in a sharp silence, loudly, loudly fallsthe first cold drop, striking a shriveled leaf....

Monday, October 24, 2011

this is the time of year for cold rainy day rides. i commute to and from the school i teach at and until recently - very recently in fact - i've been riding in shorts. temperatures are hovering around the single to low double-digits in celsius so it's been a manly character-building exercise in something that when asked to explain, i simply can't, not even to myself. i simple feel the need to do it.

however, those days are passing by as my hands now have gloves on them and my legs (no matter how hairy)

are also covered, by riding pants.

the bike looks out onto the driveway ."oh no. not again".....

yep! get your nose out there .....

it ain't gonna go away

and i've gotta ride.

every day, the road unfolds under my wheels. on these days when it's rainy and the roads are often slick with leaves, i read the road even more carefully than usual for anything that could make my ride -

and maybe even my life - less than pleasant . . . or worse!

but i'm careful and so (touch wood) nothing overly untoward happens.

i love the early morning streetlights reflecting in the rain on the streets.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

this is a special day for me. more special even than most. you see my mum - ruth - is celebrating her eightieth birthday today.

she doesn't quite match the image of eighty that i and perhaps you might see in your mind's eye.

she's just returned from a couple of weeks in england visiting friends and travelling

around to see some special places.

what she'll return to is her role as a walker at the local dog shelter, a supporter of the local donkey sanctuary, a preparer of gift baskets used to raise money for the huntington's foundation, loving tenderer of her garden, bottler of all sorts of awesome preserves (especially pickled beets which i could eat 'till i was sick) friend to many, sister in law to her closest friend margaret, gramma to alan, dawson and lexie, and of course mum to myself and my brother david.

she'll be heading off to cuba in the early part of next year for some r and r. books by the ocean, that sort of thing.

my mum is (among many other things) well read, well movied, well musicked,

thoughtful, reflective, sensitive, and i would underscore several times - driven!

there's lots more about her but really, you get my drift. she's not sitting around any more than she has to.

actually i don't think she knows how!

i'm very grateful for my mum - she brought me into this world at great personal effort - a couple of days of work . . . . . and stuck with me from then on, through thick and thin.

have you had a "difficult" child? then you know what ruth dealt with while pursuing a career, and managing the rest of her not entirely easy life!!!

nope, it's not been easy but then i think that my mum would ask "why should it be?" and then go after whatever's next in her line of sight.

much of what i value in myself has its roots in my mum. either she showed me how to be or i figured it out by standing on her shoulders and having a look-see.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Saturday, October 15, 2011

"to let the eye stray over a palette, splashed with many colours, produces a dual result. in the first place one receives a purely physical impression, one of pleasure and contentment at the varied and beautiful colours. the eye is either warmed or else soothed and cooled. but these physical sensations can only be of short duration. they are merely superficial and leave no lasting impression, for the soul is unaffected. but although the effect of the colours is forgotten when the eye is turned away, the superficial impression of varied colour may be the starting point of a whole chain of related sensations."

Friday, October 14, 2011

Thursday, October 13, 2011

"the morning's not my best time but it's all the time i have my sweet".

this brief note on the back of this lovely photograph was left on my windowsill and i see from the arcing calligraphy of the writer that it's from my date for the ball at willow manor.

thank goodness, i thought i might have to travel solo!!

my date - lee - (lee miller for fans of surrealist photography) and i, became close friends after meeting at a performance piece i performed on berlin's kurfurstendamm during a similar dawn escapade a few years ago.

here's the little picture my friend man ray took of lee right afterwards.

when we are in the same place and time,

lee and i spend much of our time together in bakeries and sitting alongside rivers or small pools writing poetry and playing endless games of exquisite corpse.

if you're awake just before dawn, you'll see us arriving at the manor

on our identical english touring bicycles

(lights on of course!)

here's a picture of us last summer much of which we spent at my house.

anyhow,

i've spent the last little while assembling several breakfast baskets.

each has a bottle of veuve-clicquot, a fresh-baked bagette, unsalted butter, a garden tomato, a lovely little tub of caviar, some wensleydale, dark chocolate and of course smoked salmon.

samovars of hot water will be brought down to us at the appropriate juncture to help with the coffee-making - preferably as soon as our eyes open!

smoked salmon and dark chocolate. oh my goodness!!!!

please come and join us down by the little stream at the back of tess's property for some dawnfast!